SNS-HDR Forum

First several tests are looking very nice. I shoot interiors and my issue is getting clean window data with accurate interior colors. Version 2 is doing this straight from RAW files. Usually, I have to make changes to the images, save as tiff, and then run through SNS for best results.

The only thing I would suggest is the option to remove Chromatic Aberrations. This is one of those things I remove in Camera Raw before saving as tiff and then running through SNS. However, if it can be removed in SNS I can skip those steps and go straight to SNS 2 from the RAW files.

Thanks for this update, anything that can save me time on editing is awesome!

TGrundvig wrote:First several tests are looking very nice. I shoot interiors and my issue is getting clean window data with accurate interior colors. Version 2 is doing this straight from RAW files. Usually, I have to make changes to the images, save as tiff, and then run through SNS for best results.

The only thing I would suggest is the option to remove Chromatic Aberrations. This is one of those things I remove in Camera Raw before saving as tiff and then running through SNS. However, if it can be removed in SNS I can skip those steps and go straight to SNS 2 from the RAW files.

Thanks for this update, anything that can save me time on editing is awesome!

Good Point, that's also my workflow

Phil

Since command line parameters and the LR plugin seem not to work yet in this version, I manually went through the workflow. IE exporting TIFFs from LR, loading into SNS-HDR and creating the HDR, then saving it as TIFF and re-importing into LR for further processing. Re-import into LR is not possible; LR is not able to display a thumbnail for the TIFF, import is rejected with the message that the TIFF is broken. Happened for several images.

Any idea, Sebastian?

capricorn wrote:Since command line parameters and the LR plugin seem not to work yet in this version, I manually went through the workflow. IE exporting TIFFs from LR, loading into SNS-HDR and creating the HDR, then saving it as TIFF and re-importing into LR for further processing. Re-import into LR is not possible; LR is not able to display a thumbnail for the TIFF, import is rejected with the message that the TIFF is broken. Happened for several images.
Any idea, Sebastian?

You save image in 8 or 16-bit TIFF format?

I confirm Capricorn's report. SNS 2.0 creates 16bit tif that Lightroom can not process. However, SNS 8bit tifs look OK to Lightroom. Jpegs are OK too.

I only have a few programs that can read tifs. Bridge/Photoshop, RawTherapee, FastStone, and Photomatix can all read the 16bit tifs made by SNS 2.0. Only LR fails.

If I open the SNS 16bit tif in Photoshop and re-save, then Lightroom can process that version OK.

Only a clue why... when I look at the EXIF (with Exiftools) of the SNS 16bit tif, the list is very short and partial. Many common fields are missing. However, the EXIF on a 8bit tif from SNS also looks strange. And the 8bit EXIF does not match the 16bit EXIF.

This is on Win7 with Lightroom CC 2015.1.

Sebastian Nibisz wrote:You save image in 8 or 16-bit TIFF format?

In 16-bit TIFF format. Any other program I tried can read the file (incl. Photoshop Elements) but LR is unable to create a preview or import. I thought it might be due to the missing EXIF, but copying EXIF from one of the input files to the HDR doesn't help.

TGrundvig wrote:The only thing I would suggest is the option to remove Chromatic Aberrations. This is one of those things I remove in Camera Raw before saving as tiff and then running through SNS. However, if it can be removed in SNS I can skip those steps and go straight to SNS 2 from the RAW files.

Chromatic aberrations removal (especially automatic) is not trivial. There is hardly a program that beats ACR/Lightroom here (f.e. not even Canon's DPP does). And it's more to decent raw conversion than that what dcraw (on which SNS is based) is able to do. I'd appreciate if Sebastian focuses on the core features of SNS instead of turning it into a fully featured raw converter.

Me too, Erk! I think Sebastian should focus on his outstanding tonemapping algorithm and not trying programming things twice, that others have done very well. A great enhancement would be a Lightroom export modul to sns. Corrections like CA, Distorsion, Vignetting and NoiseReduction could be done very good with LR. And after that work a direct 16Bit-export to SNS-HDR would be very nice and fast.

greez Joghi

In the following YouTube video I offer an analysis of SNS 2.0 with comparisons to the prior version. It is a 21 minute "screencast" of three different image sets.

Best viewed in 1080p at full screen in order to see the details in Photoshop's Layer pallet and Info pallet. Especially the values of color sampler points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfouelC6Kw0

SNS 2.0 has changed the base tonemapping logic, and I'm having trouble undestanding why.

Prior versions of SNS created an initial "default" that was very close to my goals, often requiring no additional adjustments. SNS 2.0 is creating much darker default images, all prompting me to make significant adjustments.

Maybe I just don't get it yet, so I would welcome comments from Sebastian or others explaining why SNS 2.0 changed tonemapping so much and how to make best use of the new logic. The default settings are clearly not the answer. What is?

I fully agree with Erik and Joghi. Sebastian, please don't spend any efforts to duplicate features of a raw processor, this is not SNS's core business.

@Joghi:
As to a LR export module, a free plugin exists since 2012 which makes a pretty good job in exporting 16-bit TIFF from LR, invoke SNS-HDR and reimport the created image into LR. The only featue that I am missing is that the imported HDR is inserted into the collection from which the plugin was started. You need to look in "All images" to find it. Apart from that, the handling is really convenient:
https://github.com/michaelkoetter/snshdr_lightroom

Please note that the plugin does not work (yet?) with SNS-HDR 2.0. See my above posts.

Regards
Karsten